GinBoy2

Ditto.

Unfortunately my fully vaccinated (Pfizer) wife just became one of those breakthrough statistics. Went down with covid pneumonia pretty bad, but as the Doc said being vaccinated it'll be fine just gotta tough it out. Well she's well on the mend now, of course I, also fully vaccinated have also have tested positive but without any symptoms. Now which one of us got it first and passed it to the other, just can't tell

She is National Geographic beautiful. Her eyes are stunning

This always figured in my thoughts. Thailand as a country doesn't really provide the infrastructure to deal with someone who is say confined to a wheelchair. So get the point where serious QOL issues happen; strokes, dementia it gets really sticky. The problem with many of these frailties is; that you may not die, but how you can be cared for and what support you might have to enable you to live out your days after suffering some life changing event woefully lacking in Thailand. The idea of lying on some bamboo platform outside a tin shack in Isaan after lets say a stroke, isn't living for me. These are the questions that some 60 year old happily chugging down their next Leo at the bar needs to contemplate

I just looked at the chart of GBP/THB. It's 46.5 to 45.06 over the month. What's that less than 2% swing? If thats enough to fling some poor expat into abject poverty, maybe they should reassess the financial planning that led them to Thailand in the first place!

Pfizer, back in March

Well the whole idea that this nightmare is going away anytime soon is nonsense, and with that the idea that mass tourism is going to restart with it. My fully vaccinated wife just went down with covid pneumonia. Yes she will recover and unlikely to need to be hospitalized. But this is just how it appears it is, with variants spreading across the planet, the travel restrictions are going to be in a constant state of flux for years. With my wifes experience I'm kinda at the point to believe it either burns itself out, or this is our new normal. Neither of those scenarios bode well for the quick return to tourism as normal

Well the thing is they won't, or can't. Unfortunately for his family Thailand will be his final resting place. And unfortunately for them they may well be saddled with picking up the tab for those final days on the planet if they want him to have any kind of dignified exit

Dying can be expensive.. I don't think any, probably divorced aging white guy flying to Thailand to relive his youth with Thai maidens thinks about death. But then again there is the sticky issue that you probably have children, grandchildren who might want a say in this. And I don't think many of us want to die alone, I think human instinct wants us to be around loved ones, hard to do if you're stuck thousands of miles from home and family, and a GoFundme account is all you got

Well he will never be cleared to fly on a regular flight. So then you are down to medivac flights. And if you think it's been expensive up to this point, hold on to your hats for a whole new level of hurt!

This story exposes that dirty underlying truth that many try to ignore. Getting old in Thailand is a risky business. Many guys arrive in their late 50's early 60's, still relatively good health, off to enjoy the 'good' life. What they push to the back of their mind is the fact that like it or not when you get into your 60's and later, stuff happens and you do get sick. In Western countries, even in the much maligned US system after 65 social medicine kicks in, and you will be taken care of. The reverse is true in Thailand, where as insurance companies do, the premiums increase with age as the risk of you actually needing it increases to the point that you can't afford it anyway. The idea of becoming incapacitated or infirm in Thailand always filled me with terror

Oh Yeah. The Nigerians are always anxious for a beach(scam) vacation. Quality tourists one and all lol

So the penny drops, that despite the eternal optimism of TAT, their beloved Chinese tourists ain't coming back until at least the end of 2022 due to China's hardline lockdown of borders, we move on to the Indians. So after the Indians fail to materialize, do we move on to the Afghans desperate for beach vacation!!

My Thai dentist (Thonglor Dental Hospital) emailed my last full dental xrays to my US dentist without any issue. I'm sure that would be the case for any reputable dental practise

Then good luck to her, and maybe stop whining about being 'bankrupt', Such an nonsense story, and I can't wait until the GoFundme pleas start

I don't want to sound harsh, but I'm struggling to understand why I should feel any sympathy for this woman and her boyfriend. Yes, she was apparently visiting her parents for the first time in two years, well she's not alone in that. My wife along with countless others haven't seen family in over 2 years. Remember there was a time within most of our lifetimes, that when family moved overseas you probably didn't see them for 10-20 years and phone calls and letters were how you kept in touch, so don't give me the 'basic human rights' argument BS. As for the money. Yeah maybe she was a starving student, but bankrupt! Kids can put that much on a credit card for the latest must have with the blink of an eye. Then there is just common sense. They were having a vacation, the family stuff is just a smokescreen. Anyone with half a brain has seen how travel restrictions can change on a dime in the past couple of years, and if they had a brain larger than a fruit fly should have taken this into consideration before deciding to travel

The horrible thought is that for most of the demographic on here we grew up with The Stones. As these folks die we see our own mortality. I'd suggest that most of us are a few years behind, but damn I bet most of us wished we'd had the life he'd lived. RIP

Well there are clearly some (UK) cultural references I don't understand. But do Thai cops even carry a nightstick, truncheon for the Brits? If they do, I've never seen one, let alone seen one used

The problem with driving is the Darien Gap. There is no land crossing across the Panama Canal. A bridge has been discussed for years, yet here we are

It's all a frikkin c*rap shoot how it works out. My wife never wanted us to move from Singapore to Thailand, she wanted us to go straight to the US, but I got my way. She told me at the time I'd be bored with the place within 10 years. She got it wrong by 11 months. Our son had a terrible transition from school in Singapore and once he left to the US for college the die was cast. Momma Bear wasn't gonna be away from her baby, I was bored and she wanted to restart her career which had stalled in Thailand. The Universe chucks a bunch of cra*p at you and you deal with it the best you can

Don't judge too harshly. Give it another decade then come back and tell us how you feel

You maybe under underestimating the OP. People decide to leave Thailand for a myriad of reasons. But in my experience it tends to be a drip drip of things that tends to build up to a point where you kinda know it's time to leave. For many at the end it gets to petty things like a mosi bite are enough to tip you over the edge. So the OP may not have had any part in this, but maybe this was his mosi bite!

As an additional piece of advice. Now I don't know where you are moving to, but in general it's better to use the steamship line to get it as a bonded shipment as close as you can to the final destination, which will be the Port of Entry. Trucking is awfully expensive. We live in South Dakota, smack dead in the center of the country, so our container went from Long Beach to Minneapolis as a bonded train shipment. Minneapolis was then the Port of Entry, after which it was trucked back West, but it saved a boat load of money compared to having it trucked all the way from Long Beach. But if you are talking about Europe it's hundreds of miles/km unlike in the US where it's 1000's of miles from the Port, so direct trucking maybe the option

Problem being, most of the raw material your horny friend wants have long since departed the Pattaya's for their home villages

We used Asian Tigers to ship our stuff to the US. Very professional, great packing service and everything arrived on schedule and intact. https://www.asiantigersgroup.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw64eJBhAGEiwABr9o2J90FscrwLI2Ed3g2ZjQ13Klrzlx24Vl_DJs3QNIHdl0Rv9OxlE64xoC2x8QAvD_BwE